Streak.com (YC S11) Takes On Salesforce With A Simple CRM For Gmail

http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/21/gmail-streak/

by alooPotato • 14 years ago

97 21 14 years ago

jonbischke• 14 years ago

We've been using Streak at Entelo and we're very happy. The "social integration" provided by most CRM systems is lacking and when you combine Streak and Rapportive inside of GMail/Google Apps, it's really quite powerful.

The CRM landscape feels like it's undergoing a change somewhat similar to what happened a decade ago when cloud-based providers like Salesforce disrupted incumbents like Siebel. Salesforce, while a very powerful product/company in many ways, is not immune to disruption and it's great to see folks like Streak, Nimble, 37Sigs/Highrise attempting to compete with them.

ultrasaurus• 14 years ago

I've been using Rapportive forever -- I am actually surprised there aren't more startups trying to eat Salesforce's $65-200 per seat per month lunch.

rubyrescue• 14 years ago

ming.ly is another

twakefield• 14 years ago

I highly recommend this for those using google apps and looking for a light-weight CRM to handle inbound email leads. I looked at Salesforce and shuddered at the complexity when I just wanted a way to make sure I followed up with inbound email inquiries in a methodical fashion.

It's a big upgrade from my previous homemade gmail tagging system / boomerang hack. Also, the reusable text snippets are a huge time saver.

There are a few improvements that could be made, but overall I think the product was executed beautifully.

Nice job guys.

andrewljohnson• 14 years ago

We have been using this for support for our app, and we are very happy with it. Started out using a different service, but the GMail integration was key for us.

instakill• 14 years ago

Well done. I've got this running on my Chrome.

porter• 14 years ago

We're using this combined with yesware and it's been great.

spyderman4g63• 14 years ago

This is interesting but it also means I would have to use gmail.

grinich• 14 years ago

What's wrong with that?

What do you use?

devmach• 14 years ago

You're relying two different services to run your business, which can be gone away in a moment.

- If you're not in US, your goverment can shut down Gmail ( for ex. because google is trying to evade tax. )

- Streak can be sold to anycompany which just want to push their services.

Streak should actually be something like Thunderbird extension with RDBMS running in background

xbryanx• 14 years ago

Pricing?

alooPotato• 14 years ago

Streak is currently free while in Beta and there will always be a free plan. In the future, Streak will offer paid premium features, stay tuned.

smilliken• 14 years ago

I've been one of Streak's biggest advocates for a while now-- I use it for everything. In particular, it's been extremely helpful for hiring, fundraising, and business development at MixRank. I highly recommend it.

teamlaft• 14 years ago

I like how it can apply to all the use cases you mention above, and also how they have a variety of demo videos on their website demonstrating them. About to try it out now for my startup.

goronbjorn• 14 years ago

There is definitely a lot of room for a lightweight, "bottom-up" CRM app out there that's focused on usability. I think Dropbox has handily proven that this sort of thing can get peppered across companies without a top-down, sales-driven deployment which is what Salesforce is.

squadron• 14 years ago

I voted this story up because I want somebody to kick Salesforce's ass.

rdl• 14 years ago

I wonder how hard it would be to also support self-hosted mail users (with a webmail client talking imap, or ideally something which works with mutt).

muhammadatt• 14 years ago

Its a fantastic app - I've been using it for about two weeks and its completely replaced a clunky process of trying to link lead spreadsheets, with Highrise contacts and Gmail emails. We store contacts in Highrise but it is pretty lousy for pipeline management. Because Streak lives inside gmail, it makes it really easy to see all the email associated with each lead. It also replaces Boomerang (email scheduler applet) and Tout (email template app) so I can get more done without leaving my inbox. Streak and Rapportive handle almost all my CRM needs at this point.

ThomPete• 14 years ago

I have tried a bunch of these tools now.

I agree completely that there is a problem to be solved. I don't believe any of the tools I have tried have found a proper way to solve it yet.

The best helper I have is still rapportive.

There is something about the input output flow of information in these tools that is off.

thomasdavis• 14 years ago

Seems like it's gonna be pretty popular

Streak.com (YC S11) Takes On Salesforce With A Simple CRM For Gmail

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